Tom on the Next Big TrumpTrial

 March, like February, promises to be an eventful month, for any number of reasons.  There's the NCAA Men's and Women's intercollegiate basketball tournaments, which always seem to be full of dramatic storylines and athletic derring-do. 

Politics always offer its own dramatic storylines, from the upcoming "SuperTuesday '' primary, (March 5),to the continuing demonstrations of why Congressional Republicans are unfit to govern. (Biden impeachment farce as exhibit #1: GOP refusal to address the so-called 'Crisis on the Southern Border as exhibit # 2 because the addled Mr. Trump would rather use it as a wedge issue in the November election  than take steps to solve it, with the inability of the House majority  to pass any sort of budget, leaving the brave people of Ukraine to: "Twist, twist slowly in the wind...",  [to steal a now forgotten line from former Nixon White House Counselor John Erlichman], as Exhibit # 3).  But the event that I'm looking forward to is the Next big TrumpTrial, which begins on 23 March in Manhattan.  It's the first of Mr. Trump's trials that are criminal, rather than civil.  It's the oldest of the Trump indictments and many say that it's the weakest.  It's the so-called "hush money" trial which, on the surface is about a payoff to a strippper, but upon closer inspection, involves the sort of cheap and tawdry tax fraud for which Mr. Trump has become notorious.  This is the case brought by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, and is scheduled to be heard by Justice Jose Merchan, who has the reputation of not tolerating nonsense in his courtroom.  Mr. Trump is a difficult client who is often his own worst enemy, and his new team of lawyers will be hard pressed to keep him in check.  Smart people know what they don't know, while stupid people imagine that they know everything that there is to know.